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Saturday, September 18, 2010

tomato corn pie

This one was a bit of a cheat as far as the soft food diet went. I had an overwhelming corn surplus, beautiful csa tomatoes, and my ongoing inability to resist the allure of anything featured on the smitten kitchen. Thus, tomato corn pie.

tomato corn pie with fresh basil and lemon mayo

Even with my rubber bands and wire armature still in place, I was actually able to eat all this. The trick is to let the fork stand in for your teeth, which frees you up from any painful chewing. Those tines can accomplish a lot of smashing and mashing. I swallowed lots and lots of more less fully intact corn kernels while I was on my soft food diet and suffered no ill effects. Even if I had, it might have been worth it just to enjoy this bright, summery pie.

The corn from our CSA has been spectacularly sweet all summer, and the tomatoes have been just brilliant. This stands in sharp contrast to the share we received last year, which had many things going for it, but fairly awful corn and a pitiful amount of tomatoes. I could never have made a dish like this last year, but this summer, my tomato corn pie was a decadently sweet and savory seasonal treat.

The only trick to the dish is the pie crust. The ratios on the original seemed to be off, because I had to add more flour. I could have just measured wrong, but I definitely had to add extra so I could roll the dough out. Once I did that, the crust came out beautifully. I was shocked by how legit it looked once I baked it.

pie doesn't always mean dessert

Not only did it look like a real pie, it also tasted pretty damn good. Layers of corn, tomato, cheddar, chives and basil stacked up prettily, and the flavors went together beautifully. I especially enjoyed the thin layer of lemony mayo spread underneath the top layer of crust. It was a nice, citrusy touch. Nathan thought it could have used even more cheddar cheese, and I have to agree. I love summer veggies, but cheese makes everything better.

corn tomato pie cross section

If you still have late summer corn and tomatoes, I definitely recommend you make this. I didn't get anymore corn this week, but I am still swimming in tomatoes. I'll miss them when they go, but right now I am up to my elbows and I don't can, so it's a little overwhelming! Still, there are certainly worse things, and I just can't say no to a ripe summer tomato. There's nothing better.

1 comment:

I have been reveling in the tomatoes this summer, and froze half a dozen can sized bags of roasted tomatoes for winter. Also made Tomatoes Provencal, which is basically baked tomatoes with a topping of bread crumbs, parsley, and garlic. Very yummy. I'm going to try this pie.

About Us

Sarah and Nathan live in Harlem (he's on Edgecomb avenue, and she's 15 blocks south on 5th), and they cook a lot. She likes fresh organic vegetables and tries to make a note when recipes can be easily adapted to gluten free diet, as her brother can't eat wheat. He likes to make fun of her for using too much garlic.